Docklander - July 2019

03 Jul 2019

A passion for connecting with people is what motivates all aspects of Daniel Limmy’s life.

Since moving to Melbourne from London 10 years ago, the 38-year-old has become widely known around our city as a hard-working and caring figure who continues to give to others.

Whether it be through his work with Rotary, Melbourne’s Asian community, charitable organisations or right here in Docklands, his passion and energy continue to inspire positive change in our community.

“People are my passion. When I talk to people I want to connect people,” Dan said.

Originally from Malaysia and half-Taiwanese, Dan has forged his professional career in engineering and currently works as a senior development manager for USG Boral; a role which requires him to travel constantly.

Between that and travelling home to visit family each year, as well as having also lived in the United Kingdom (UK) for more than a decade, the Flinders Wharf resident can say with confidence that nowhere compares to Docklands.

“I’ve lived in Docklands for six years and I like the vibe here,” he said. “Prior to that I was in the UK for over a decade and, comparatively, Docklands is a much better place than the UK because of the people, the culture, the weather and the food so Docklands is my home.”

“The community here [Flinders Wharf] is very strong. The people are very good. We run an event every month at Flinders Wharf whether it be a community BBQ or something else so it’s pretty good.”

“Most importantly it’s quiet and it’s safe to me because after dinner I’ll go for a walk along the river. I go down to Yarra’s Edge all the way and come back even for a jog. I like the water so, therefore, I want to be close to the CBD but not too noisy and near the water.”

Having held a long association with Rotary which stems back to his time living in the UK and Malaysia, he officially became a member of the Rotary Club of Central Melbourne four years ago, and has recently played a central role to helping revive a Docklands Rotary Club. Just last month, he was awarded his second Paul Harris Fellow, which recognises outstanding service to Rotary.

His work with Melbourne’s Asian community is also something he is passionate about. As the director, co-founder and Victorian chair of AzNConnect, a network for young Asian professionals with more than 4000 active members, he plays a central role in organising regular events and initiatives aimed at bringing Asian communities together.

“I have expanded into AzNConnect because I like to gather people together and I can see the benefit of being united together so unity and freedom is good,” he said. “My goal is to expand this association to more young professionals and entrepreneurs so we want to be a stronger community and help people to improve.”

“A lot of communities are closed communities. For example, the Japanese community will only hang out within its community, Chinese are the same. So, a lot of feedback we received was that people come and were so surprised to see so many multicultural people hanging out together. They like the vibe and our members constantly want to come back for more.”

His service to the community also extends to a range of other initiatives. As a self-described “food lover”, he currently sits on the committee of not-for-profit organisation Cooking for Charity, which has raised more than $4 million for various charities over the past 10 years.

More recently, he has also joined the Docklands Representative Group (DRG), which continues to work away at trying to build the community’s voice here in Docklands via the quarterly Docklands Community Forums (DCF).

He said that while Docklands was a wonderful place to live, he said that it needed more initiatives like the DCF and Docklands Rotary Club to get locals socialising and engaging more.

“I think Docklands could have more engagement with people. More social events would be great. There are a few small groups so I think if we could combine them then the community would be much stronger.”